lemon squeezer

[steveatt]

i have a top break, numbers on butt doesnt start with an s but has these numbers 255852, it has 38 s&w ctg , and has a 4 inch nickel barrel,the sights are fixed, and i didnt know if you wanted this but it does have a strain screw and as far as any other numbers none at all. unless i ahvent taken the grips off it. was wanting to know just when manufactured?

[glowe]

You have a .38 Safety Hammerless, 5th Model was shipped in the mid-1920s. These were slow movers by the 1920s, so the actual ship date may be a few years either side of 1925. They sold into the 1930s, ending at 261,493.

[JP@AK]

Steve
I'm not sure why you expected the serial number to start with an S. I'm not aware of any such serial numbers until the 1940s and then only on certain hand ejectors.
This doesn't really matter, but I'm curious as to whether there is something here I don't know about. Can you enlighten me?
Or can you, Gary?

[DWalt]

The S prefix SN was used on K-frames from 1946-48, and on N-frames from 1946-1970

[steveatt]

thanks to you guys for the information as to the s i had seen somewhere on here about the older guns i thought started with an s but i have and had looked at so much i could of been thinking that what my name starts with an s, i really dont remember i guess i may of just experienced my first one had a judge to tell me i would start have brain farts and senior moments i really didnt think i would that that quick but when some of you guys retired, did you get down and all kind of crazy feelings i guess i can deal with them, i have dealt with so many other peoples problems had about forgotten i still have plenty of my own also. really having trouble sleeping and i know this is a gun forum not a physic forum but? thanks to all of you all that helped or didnt god bless you all.

[mmaher94087]

Whew! Ease off the coffee..

[JP@AK]

Originally Posted by DWalt

The S prefix SN was used on K-frames from 1946-48, and on N-frames from 1946-1970

Yes. Those are the only revolvers I'm aware of with the S prefix.
On the N frames, the N numbers started in 1969, but some with the S prefix continued to roll out of the vault until about 1970, at S333454.

The S prefix K frame guns pretty much ended in March, 1948, although some actually shipped later than that. I show one shipping as late as August, 1949.

[stan salter]

The S prefix began with the M&P Victory model in WWII. Apparently the Navy had one discharge accidently when dropped resulting in a fatality. The government decided that the "hump" on the rebound slide wasn't sufficienrtly safe and requested S&W to improve the safety. S&W responded with the sliding hammer block that we still have today. For awhile guns that were manufactured with the hammer block or modified to have one were given the S prefix. Eventually that modification was incorporated into all revolvers and labelling which ones had it was unnecessary.

[DWalt]

"The S prefix began with the M&P Victory model in WWII. "

The late WWII Victory SN prefix was SV, not S.

[stan salter]

DWalt -

You're right of course - S for the safety mod and V for the basic model. As other models got the modification, they only had an S.

Stan

[Club Gun Fan]

Sell the gun and get some sleep!